On Climate, Gov. Murphy Brings a New Voice to New Jersey

Given the Trump administration’s indifference to climate change, the task of reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas, has fallen largely to city and state governments. It is thus greatly encouraging that New Jersey, under its new governor, Phil Murphy, a Democrat, will join — more precisely, rejoin — the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a consortium of nine Eastern and New England states that has achieved substantial emissions reductions from large power plants since its start in 2009.

Mr. Murphy chose Highlands, a borough on the Atlantic shore hit hard by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, to announce that he would sign an executive order renewing New Jersey’s participation in the consortium. His predecessor, Chris Christie, a Republican, pulled the state out of the agreement in 2011, claiming he was trying to protect New Jersey ratepayers. A more plausible explanation lay in his nascent presidential aspirations. Climate change had become an unpopular subject among Republicans, and big donors like the Koch brothers were threatening to pull the plug on any candidate who favored regulation of greenhouse gases.

RGGI (pronounced “Reggie”) has, in fact, a Republican pedigree, dating back to 2003, when Gov. George Pataki of New York invited other Northeast governors to join a regional effort to reduce carbon emissions. What followed was a regionwide system that sets a declining cap on emissions from large power plants — about 170 in total — and requires individual power producers to buy permits from state governments to pollute. As the cap declines, the price of the permits rises, giving utilities an incentive to find cheaper ways to reduce emissions.

According to various studies, power plant emissions have declined 40 percent since 2009, while the sale of the permits has raised $2.7 billion that’s been invested in efficiency measures and renewable energy. Some of these reductions would have occurred anyway as plants shifted from coal to cheaper, cleaner-burning natural gas, and the reductions are a small fraction of the total greenhouse gases generated in the nine-state region. Even so, it’s a well-designed program that will only get stronger; last August, the nine states agreed to reduce emissions a further 30 percent by 2030. A national program along similar lines passed the House in 2009 but never came to a vote in the Senate.

There is one more thing Mr. Murphy can do to show that he’s bringing a new sensibility on energy and environmental matters to Trenton. That is to chart a sensible way forward for two New Jersey nuclear plants that keeps them alive for now but provides for the day when they become too old or costly. At issue are the Salem and Hope Creek generating stations. Their owner, Public Service Electric and Gas, is threatening to close them unless the Legislature provides a subsidy of $300 million a year. A bill to do exactly that came close to approval in the waning days of the Christie administration and is now in negotiations between the new governor and the State Senate.

Nobody doubts the value of the two plants. Nuclear power is carbon-free, and thus vital to the fight against climate change. But simply throwing money at them is shortsighted. California, Illinois and New York have all faced the issue of aging, uneconomical nuclear plants and have devised creative solutions that would significantly ramp up investment in renewables like wind and solar so that when the plants do close, there are carbon-free sources to take their place — not to mention new jobs for the displaced workers. Mr. Murphy should insist on a similarly creative and comprehensive plan.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: On Climate, a New Voice in Trenton. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe